The Use and Abuse of Power
Many of you have been surprised to learn that an innocent woman (Dawn
Rowan) can have her property ‘legally’ stolen by the Australian
Government. Not only that: Five S.A. Government departments ‘lost’ the
relevant cohort of documents before the court-case began. Was anyone
prosecuted for that? No. A thick folder of many of these documents –
carefully pasted together from quotes in other memos – was stolen from a
friend’s house where they were lodged for safe-keeping (nothing else was
taken). Who would have done that? [1]
Reinhold Niebuhr used to say that the worst evils in the world are
perpetrated by ‘good’ people who do not know they are not doing good.
The evil in institutions is greater than the sum of the evil of the
individuals within them (Robert Merton).
Power is mostly abused by humans on the basis of race, class/poverty and
gender. On the last one: conservative Brethren scholar Professor
F.F.Bruce said you cannot begin a Christian theology of gender unless
you look through the lens of Galatians 3:28: the old racist, classist
and sexist divisions were removed by Christ. The early Christians dealt
with the race issue fairly well; the abolition of slavery had to wait 18
centuries; and freedom for women 20 centuries!
So women are free in Christ to exercise any ministry consonant with
their Spirit-gifting (but sensitive sometimes to cultural constraints,
as Paul suggested to the Corinthians about head coverings). Twelve women
in the N.T. are described as ‘ministers’ etc. – the same words used for
men. [2]
So if God wants a woman – Deborah – to lead the people of God, then
that’s O.K. (Some of us wouldn’t have let God do that!). I live with one
of the best ‘ministers’ I’ve known: she was an elder and baptized people
back in the 1970s (we didn’t know any Baptist woman who’d done that) and
has been an excellent pastor at three of our churches!
Rowland Croucher
http://jmm.aaa.net.au
[1] http://jmm.aaa.net.au/articles/4728.htm
[2] http://jmm.aaa.net.au/articles/8195.htm
--
Shalom/Salaam/Pax! Rowland Croucher
http://jmm.aaa.net.au/
(20,000 articles 4000 humor)
Blogs - http://rowlandsblogs.blogspot.com/
Justice for Dawn Rowan - http://dawnrowansaga.blogspot.com/
Funny Jokes and Pics - http://funnyjokesnpics.blogspot.com/
